Parachute
by that girl65
Summary: Sometimes the hardest part of falling is not knowing what's at the bottom. Or if you're already there. punk!Quinn/goth!Rachel AU. Sequel to "Run the HEart"


AN: Sequel to "Run the Heart". It wouldn't leave my head. Tell me what you think =) Based off "Parachute" by Ingrid Michaelson.

* * *

With a final whine of pleasure, Quinn rolled off of Rachel, collapsing besides her on the bed. Rachel watched the pretty lights pop behind he eyes, breathing deeply until her breath evened and the lights faded away.

As the bliss ebbed away she began to feel exposed and she looked over at the pink haired head on the pillow besides her, blindly reaching for her just to make sure she was there.

Rachel wished that Quinn would just collapse on her after she came rather than rolling away from her. When she brought it up, the taller girl always said she would crush her and Rachel bit her tongue to stop from confessing that's what she wanted.

Rachel wanted Quinn to crush her so she could at least feel something. She wanted to know Quinn was there. She needed to know that it was real and not just some elaborate fantasy that her drug laced mind had tricked her with. Rachel wanted to feel the weight of the pale girl's still trembling body on her chest, to run her hands through sweat soaked pink hair.

The goth girl turned over to face Quinn who was laying on her stomach, pink head nested neatly on her folded arms as her eyes looked sleepily back at Rachel. She leaned forward and kissed Quinn's shoulder. Hazel eyes shined back at her with the after glow of her orgasm.

Rachel cuddled closer to her pale body, her fingers tracing the line of her spine.

"Kitty?" she said softly.

"Hm?"

"I have a song for you."

Kitty raised an eyebrow at Rachel and turned on her back, "A song?"

Rachel just nodded and slid out of the bed. She started the record player and turned it up, letting the music move gently through the room. When Rachel settled back onto the mattress Quinn fixed her with a skeptical look.

"A pop song?"

Rachel just cuddled into Quinn's side, her head on a pale chest an her hand blindly tracing the tattoo under the other girl's right breast. She had done it so many times she didn't need to look to find it anymore. Her fingers automatically found the ink.

"Just listen, Kitty," Rachel said softly, "This song. It's us."

Rachel hummed along at first and began to sing softly, "_I don't tell anyone about the way you hold my hand. I don't tell anyone about the things that we have planned. I won't tell anybody, won't tell anybody. They wanna push me down, they wanna see you fall down_."

Her voice trailed off and Quinn looked up at the ceiling, "You never told me you sang."

A slight pang went through Rachel's chest and she buried her face into Quinn's neck, inhaling her scent. She smelled like honey and their mixed sweat.

"I don't."

Rachel felt a squeeze at her hip and a hand brush through her hair so she took her head from her neck but not before kissing the skin softly. She swung her leg over Quinn's hips and straddled her, raking her nails down her smooth stomach. Quinn smiled softy up at her before holding her hands.

"Why do you have gold stars all over your room?"

Rachel blushed and felt that pain in her chest again, threatening to reach up and grab at her throat.

"I used to want to be a star," she said widening her eyes sarcastically and holding he hands out to her sides, wiggling her fingers a little.

Quinn chuckled at her antics, her hands resting high on the goth girl's thighs.

"You could be. A star."

Rachel just shook her head and leaned down to place a soft kiss on swollen lips.

"Can I ask you a question now?"

Quinn raised a cautious eyebrow and nodded.

Rachel ran her fingers over the ink under the pale breast, "Who's Beth?"

The pink haired girl blinked at her before looking up at the ceiling, color ebbing away from her face. Rachel regretted the question as soon as it left her lips.

"I-it's okay. If you don't want to a-answer. I was j-just-"

"My daughter," Quinn said firmly.

Rachel watched her carefully, something clenching at her own heart as she processed the information.

"I...oh...w-where?"

Quinn just shook her head and closed her eyes, her hands tensing on tan thighs. Rachel settled her body over Quinn's, hovering her face over the other girl's and letting her hair fall around them, a curtain blocking them from the world.

"Kitty," Rachel whispered, "come back to me."

Hazel eyes landed on brown, a sadness floating in them that Rachel wished she understood. She pressed their lips together so softly that it was just the whisper of a kiss that moved across their lips.

"Can you not sing some more?" Quinn whispered against her lips. Rachel trailed soft kisses across her jaw and down her neck. A final firm kiss was pressed just above Quinn's heart as Rachel sang softly against her skin.

_I don't need a parachute, baby if I've got you. Baby if I've got you, I don't need a parachute. You're gonna catch me. You're gonna catch if I fall._

* * *

A year.

It had been a year.

Quinn wondered what she had been doing for the past year.

Parties and booze and girls and drugs.

That's how she had wasted the past year.

She always reasoned with herself that it was okay. She was trying to forget. She was trying to forget the sharp pain that ripped the only good thing she ever had away from her. She was trying to forget the overwhelming smell of copper and the red stains on the bathroom floor.

Tonight it had been a year. And tonight she needed to forget. Especially tonight.

An empty whiskey bottle thrown carelessly onto the grass was her welcome present as she walked into the party, the booming bass hitting her in the chest and imitating the beating of her own heart. She cut straight through the crowd and down to the basement.

A knot of anticipation settled in her stomach when she was passed the needle and for a brief moment she thought of the girl with blue streaks. But then she remembered the shoe box buried six feet deep in the woods, the final resting place for yet another thing in her life she had failed at.

The needle pierced her skin with the sweet promise of relief and she sank into the cushions of the couch waiting for it to come. But she just felt a heavy weight settle down over her body and he couldn't shake it off. The thoughts of tiny hands an tiny blonde curls kept assaulting her and she needed something else. Anything else.

She vaguely remembered lowering her head to a line on the stained coffee table and everything else was a mess.

There were lights and a beating in her head that wouldn't cease and bodies. So many bodies. Bodies of kids too young to have this kind of sadness. They were someone's baby. They had been in their mother's belly.

What had she done wrong?

It felt like she was floating and falling at the same time. Her body was being pulled in a million different directions. Hands crawling and ripping at her. Tiny hands clawing their way out of her belly and onto the bathroom floor.

Quinn felt hands moving through her hair, holding her. Grounding her. She attempted to speak but all that came out was done sort of garbled mess.

"Ssh, Kitty," the angelic voice above her said, "You're okay now. You're safe."

There was a soft singing as she felt her eyes forced closed by exhaustion.

_Just hold on to me. I'll hold on to you. It's you and me up against the world. Just you and me._

* * *

Rachel's tears of fear had long dried by the time Quinn's bloodshot eyes finally opened. The goth girl swallowed the lump in her throat and kissed her dry lips gently. To assure herself as much to assure the other girl.

"Never do that again, Kitty," Rachel whispered, "You scared me."

Quinn's pink tongue darted from a parched mouth to wet chapped lips to no avail. A gentle hand pushed pink hair from her face as she spoke.

"You didn't have to."

Rachel broke a little but she shook her head, "Don't be silly, Kitty. Of course I did."

The brunette watched as Quinn looked down at her arm, a bandaid covering the evidence of her recklessness the night before. With a final kiss to her forehead, Rachel pulled Quinn to the bathroom. She started the water as Quinn made a helpless attempt at taking off her own shirt.

Rachel stopped her hands, "Let me."

Quinn let her hands fall in defeat as Rachel stripped Quinn of her clothes and ushered her under the warm spray of the shower. She followed shortly after, kissing her chest before squirting shampoo into her palm and massaging a pink scalp.

She liked taking care of Quinn like this. Mostly because she never let her. Rachel hoped it was a result of Quinn trusting her more and not just a byproduct of the cocktail of drugs she had shot into her system the night before.

Quinn's eyes stayed trained on Rachel, a slight haze still over them that scared the brunette.

"Why are you so sad, Kitty?" Rachel said softly, "What broke you?"

Hazel eyes swam in tears and Quinn turned away, crossing her arms in front of her chest as if she were trying to cover herself. Rachel pulled her into her arms and let her cry on her shoulder, pretending she didn't notice when the hot tears stung her skin like she knew she would want her to.

Rachel held her tight and began to hum.

_I don't believe anything, don't trust anyone anymore. But I believe you when you say we're never gonna fall. Hand behind my neck, arm around my waist. Never let me hit the ground. You'll never let me crash down._

* * *

Rain patterned softly on the leaves that hung desperately to the branches who were trying to shake them free. The forest remained undisturbed as a pink haired girl and a girl with blue streaks walked carefully through the foliage, pink leading blue by the hand.

Rachel clung tighter to Quinn's hand and she swung their hands gently an twirled a wildflower between the fingers of her other hand.

"Don't believe the things you tell yourself so late at night. You are your own worst enemy. You'll never win the fight."

Quinn looked back at Rachel and just squeezed her hand. The simple gesture warmed Rachel's heart and she skipped a little to walk besides the taller girl. She held her arm close to her chest as Quinn began to slow, finally stopping at a clearing.

Rachel gripped Quinn's arm tighter when she saw a simple stone, no bigger than a textbook placed carefully over a section of earth that only had the vague remnants of being disturbed. She took a deep breath, her lungs filling with the smell of wet earth and fresh rain as she tried to steady herself

Quinn's hand slipped from hers when she slid down on her knees to carefully wipe away some leaves and dirt from the surface of the stone. Rachel placed the flower on the top of the stone before sinking to her knees next to the pink haired girl.

The look on Quinn's face made Rachel wish she could take away her hurt and her suffering and replace it with all the love she felt for her.

"Quinn?"

Rachel watched as she let out a broken sob. She covered her mouth in an attempt to hold in the sadness but it came flooding out and Rachel put her arms around her neck and held her tight. She stroked her hair softly and wondered what she should say.

She could have told her it was okay. That it would get better.

Lies that people would say when they have no clue. Sometimes it's not okay and people don't get better.

So instead, Rachel kissed her tears and told her the only truth she knew.

"You're not alone anymore. I'm here. I'll hold you."

Rachel didn't bother pretending she didn't notice that Quinn was crying. And that's exactly what Quinn needed.

* * *

When Rachel asked if they were going to go to the party tonight Quinn just shook her head.

"Let's watch a movie."

Rachel's face lit up brighter than the stars and she kissed Quinn, getting a small chuckle out of the pink haired girl. She just smirked her signature smirk and held out her arm for Rachel to get comfortable next to her.

Hours after the movie was over they just lay in bed, legs entangled and the goth girl's head on the pink haired girl's shoulder. Rachel was tracing Quinn's new tattoo right over the almost invisible track mark on her arm.

A tiny gold star.

Rachel smiled and kissed her gently, putting her forehead to hers singing softly.

"_I won't fall out of, I won't fall out of love_."

She smiled softly when Quinn joined in, barely above a whisper.

"_I won't fall out of love. I'll fall into you_."


End file.
